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As you have probably gathered I am making my way up the coast from Cape Town. After three days there the plan has been to pretty much hop from one town to the next on the major bus lines here, which are fantastic. They have a super efficient baggage system, so I can feel totally comfortable putting my two huge backpacks in the luggage trailer. (They give you tickets for each bag, and unlike at most airports they actually check them before giving them back to you!) The buses are very comfortable, air-conditioned, and they even have an attendant who comes around serving coffee and tea!
On Saturday morning I caught the Intercape bus to Mossel Bay. I slept most of the way, though I couldn’t help but get caught up in that awful Devil Wears Prada movie they were showing. The views were really lovely throughout the whole ride, we wound through some mountain ranges and also had some nice views of the sea. My hostel in Mossel Bay came and picked me up from the bus stop (a gas station, which is typical in non-major towns). I stayed in an old train on the beach converted into
a backpackers! The rooms are naturally tiny, and a bit lacking in that old world charm you might expect (all linoleum and plastic), but it was clean and I could listen to the waves put me to sleep…you can’t beat that. You can walk into town by cutting through the grounds of the maritime museum, which has a lovely park with great sea views and a couple of very affectionate resident cats. The town was very dead - I am on the coast now and it’s the lowest part of the low season so there are very few of us tourists around, which has its good and bad sides—the good side is peace and quiet, the bad side is there isn’t much to do since a lot of places are closed (and if they’re open, they’re empty). I had to spend the afternoon on a wild goose chase for a U.S.-S.A. adapter, and then I had dinner back on the train. The food was great (you can’t really mess up fresh oysters) and there was the roar of the ocean in the background.
I hung out the next morning walking on the beach and soaking up the sea air
View from my train compartment
This was very early in the morning so it was still quite cloudy, but an hour or so later you would be able to see land on the other side of the water! before getting on a bus to Knysna, another small town further down the coast. I was told by locals that Mossel Bay is supposed to have the best climate in the world. It was absolutely perfect while I was there, warm and breezy during the day and cool at night—and keep in mind, it’s winter. Apparently Donald Trump has even discovered it, and my cabbie had recently driven Michael Bolton! I have to say though…we get the exact same weather down in North Padre in South Texas! Slightly different atmosphere, though J.
Before I go I just want to make sure I give due acknowledgement to how kind people are here in S.A. I have had such nice experiences so far, with people going well out of their way to help me out. Whenever we arrive at a bus stop in a new town, fellow passengers will check on me and make sure I have a ride into town before setting off. One person even went well out of his way to give me a ride to a mall outside Mossel Bay so I could find an adapter, out of true kindness (and probably a little pity upon seeing me with my ridiculous gear—I look like one of those burros loaded up on both sides). (Which reminds me: do not believe locals here when they tell you something is only a 10-min. walk away—usually it’s at least double if not triple what they say, and they won’t warn you if it’s all uphill! I think they’re used to walking quite a lot more than us sedentary Americans J.) People have always been willing to help me, show me how to get where I’m going the most efficient way, even if that might mean losing a cab fare for themselves (e.g. Tommy, my cab driver in Cape Town, explaining to me how to use the minibus system). I guess it’s a pretty universal thing that people are nice, but it always feels new and refreshing when you’re in a foreign place.
Love,
Martina
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